The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of pelargonium, botanically known as a Pelargonium peltatum L'Héritier, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Free Derose’. The new cultivar was propagated from a seedling resulting from the cross of the female parent ‘9120-3’, a magenta-flowered proprietary pelargonium plant (unpatented) and the male parent ‘Free Cherry Rose’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 12,448) a commercial pelargonium plant having cherry-rose flowers.
The new cultivar was created in 2001 in Gilroy, Calif. and has been asexually reproduced repeatedly by vegetative cuttings and tissue culture in Gilroy, Calif. and Hillscheid, Germany over a three-to four-year period. The present invention has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive asexual propagations.
Plant Breeder's Rights for this cultivar were applied for in Canada on Mar. 29, 2005 and with the European Union on Sep. 20, 2005.